Journeyman

If you’ve ever visited Dublin you can’t have failed to see the impact that Guinness, both the beer and the family, has had on the city and its inhabitants.

In his book, ‘God and Guinness, a biography of the beer that changed the world’, Stephen Mansfiled traces the history of the Guinness family and shows the desire of the family members to serve God, whether it was through the church or through the brewery.

Not confining himself to Guinness beer, Mansfield traces the history of brewing back to its earliest days. He talks about how beer, and the community around public houses, played an important part in the lives of influential Christians, and how attitudes to drink have changed over the years.

In theory, this book should be top of my list for recommended reading as its core themes are very important to me, God and Guinness. But, half way through I started to get a little bogged down, and it took more effort to get to the end.

Why? Well, maybe it’s because this book is written very definitely for an American market. The view of the church and history is read in the light of US politics and society and it doesn’t quite work for a UK market. But, also, while there’s a great deal in here about what the Guinness’ did and achieved, both socially and in business, the book doesn’t do the job that I was expecting in linking the decisions of the brewing family back into the example set in the life of Jesus. There are a couple of passages that quite clearly state how faith played a great part in the lives of this family, it’s just I thought there could be a bit more of this.

Despite these gripes I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending the book. There’s a lot of good quality information in there, a thorough history of the Guinness family and a good account of the impact that the brewery had on the lives of the people of Dublin. The best bit, though, comes right at the end, when Mansfiled draws some examples from the attitude of the Guinness family and the experience of the brewery.